This story needs no historical analysis or commentary. Just read it to the end -- it's worth every word! We present-day reporters only wish for such a story to walk into our newsroom!
From The Morning Guardian, Sept. 20, 1898:
A TREE IN HER THROAT
Strange Experience of an Island Woman
Mrs. Elijah Saunders of Winsloe Describes Pulling a Lemon Tree About Six Inches Long From Her Throat a Few Days Ago.
A few days since the Guardian received from a correspondent in Winsloe the following brief but extraordinary story --
"Mrs. Elijah Saunders pulled from her throat a short time ago a small tree six inches long in a growing and healthy state, and upon examination by Dr. S. R. Jenkins was found to be a lemon tree. Mrs. Saunders was not troubled much previous to the finding with the exception of a tickling in her throat at times. Mrs. Saunders is now enjoying the best of health and is none the worse for her serious experience. The tree is now on exhibition at Mr. John Hughes, Winsloe."
The story was so singular that it was deemed prudent to make inquiries before publication. This was accordingly done, first by a conversation with Dr. S. R. Jenkins. He promptly told The Guardian that he had seen Mrs. Saunders and the tree, or plant, which she told him she had pulled out of her throat. The plant was much as had been described in the correspondence quoted above and seemed more like the growth of a young lemon or orange plant than any other that he knew of.
With this partial confirmation, The Guardian waited for any further facts that might be learned in regard to so curious an affair. It was next the good fortune of the writer to have an interview with Mr. Elijah Saunders of Winsloe, who came into The Guardian office one day when he was in town. On being asked concerning the strange affair, Mr. Saunders told the following circumstantial story:
"The story of the tree is undoubtedly true. I did not see my wife take it out of her mouth but I have not a shadow of a doubt that she did so. She is a truthful woman always and would never make up a story like that. She had been complaining of a cough for some time, but we did not think much about it, supposing it was from a cold. I had gone to town and when I returned toward night after I had unharnessed the horse, I called to my wife who was standing in the door to bring out the pails and we would milk. She came out, bringing the pails and just as we were about to begin milking she said, I pulled a tree out of my throat just now. I thought she was joking and said so, but she assured me that she was not, but that she had kept the tree to show me when I came home. When we went in, sure enough, there was the little tree. It was about six inches long, the stem being about the size of a knitting needle. It had some leaves at the top and small, threadlike roots at the bottom. The roots were somewhat bloody, as if they had been grown fast and had been torn away. The plant was almost white, at least not so green as plants growing in the open air. I noticed that one of the leaves had been partially torn away and that, my wife said, was the effect of her first attempt to extract it. The second time she was more successful, and with a twinge of pain in her throat, it came up. I asked her what she thought it was when she found there was something there? I thought it was a toad, or something, she said.
Of course I believed her story. We told it to any persons who came in and then as there were many persons who wanted to see it and as we lived out of the way we concluded to leave the tree at my father-in-law's, Mr. John Hughes', the blacksmith's. Dr. Jenkins had suggested that we put the tree in water to see what it would come to and we did so. When I last saw it it seemed to have grown a little and had turned much darker green than it was at first."
Such is Mr. Saunders' story. He is a highly intelligent young farmer of about 30 years of age and appears a respectable and truthful man. As to the possibility of a lemon seed becoming lodged in the throat and germinating there the doctors and scientists may form their own opinion. Mr. Saunders did not know of his wife having eaten any lemons for a good while past, but said she had drunk lemonade at various times and might have harbored the seed that way.
